Nexus One hacked to run Honeycomb

One XDA Developer accepted the challenge of trying to get Honeycomb working on a smartphone and he has succeeded to some extent — behold the Nexus One running Android 3.0! Though don't rejoice just yet.

Until now, Google's upcoming Android OS software Honeycomb has been reserved for just tablet devices. Also, other than a Nook Color, there have been quite minimal hacks to attempt to get the OS running on other platforms.

One XDA Developer accepted the challenge of trying to get Honeycomb working on a smartphone and he has succeeded to some extent — behold the Nexus One running Android 3.0! Though don't rejoice just yet.

Forum member "Bypass23" used the Honeycomb SDK to compile a ROM bootable on the Nexus phone. He points out that the SDK has been left pretty much untouched, opening the way for other keen developers to improve the UI of Honeycomb on phones.

More information other than this is sadly lacking, though we do know that the hack is still a little green, so some areas don't work yet or require fiddly workarounds. You know, important stuff like using your phone to take calls or write texts. According to a member who tried the hack for himself, though, the Wi-Fi, camera, bluetooth, accelerometer, and sound work fine, so you can still have a little fun with Honeycomb.

So it's a nice hack in development, but don't forget the main point of having a phone is to make calls and texts (yes, not just playing cool apps!). Until Bypass23 or other developers working on this hack give it the nod, it may be worth waiting for those important functions to be added before trying it for yourself.

Check out the forum thread to see more screenshots of the OS and what others are saying about the port.